British Grand Prix 2016 Preview: Start Time, TV Info, Weather, Schedule, Odds
Formula One returns to its heartland this weekend for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. It will be the fourth race in a ridiculous five weekends that have seen the teams crisscross the globe from Canada to Azerbaijan to Austria to the English countryside, 120 kilometres north-west of London.
With only a few days to digest the action from the Red Bull Ring, where Nico Rosberg was penalised for crashing into Lewis Hamilton, his Mercedes team-mate, on the final lap, we should be in for a tense and fascinating weekend.
Hamilton went on to win at the Red Bull Ring, while Rosberg limped to a fourth-place finish in his damaged car. That result cut Rosberg's lead to just 11 points in the drivers' championship.
Meanwhile, 18-year-old Max Verstappen took advantage of Rosberg's misadventure to grab the second podium of his career—holding off Kimi Raikkonen, as he did for his victory in Spain back in May.
Further down the field, Haas took their first points since Russia, with Romain Grosjean coming home seventh, and Pascal Wehrlein scored just the second top-10 finish in Manor's history.
Despite racing under a variety of different flags—including India, the United States and France—the British Grand Prix is a home race for eight of the 11 current F1 teams, whose factories are clustered near Silverstone in what is known as Motorsport Valley.
Hamilton won his last two home races and has three overall. Another win on Sunday would tie him with another Brit, Nigel Mansell, for the second-most British Grand Prix victories, while Jim Clark and Alain Prost lead the way with five each.
On the constructors' side, Ferrari lead the way with 15 British Grand Prix wins. McLaren have 14 wins and Williams have 10. The last non-Mercedes victor at Silverstone was Red Bull's Mark Webber in 2012.
Keep reading for a full race weekend preview, including TV times, current championship standings, a circuit map and guide, tyre and DRS information, weather forecast, odds and session times.
Current Standings
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The gap between Rosberg and Hamilton continues to seesaw back and forth, while Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen are now tied for third place, maybe just hanging on to the periphery of the title race.
Here are the top 10 drivers heading into the British Grand Prix:
| Position | Driver | Points |
| 1. | Nico Rosberg | 153 |
| 2. | Lewis Hamilton | 142 |
| 3. | Sebastian Vettel | 96 |
| 4. | Kimi Raikkonen | 96 |
| 5. | Daniel Ricciardo | 88 |
| 6. | Max Verstappen | 72 |
| 7. | Valtteri Bottas | 54 |
| 8. | Sergio Perez | 39 |
| 9. | Felipe Massa | 38 |
| 10. | Romain Grosjean | 28 |
Mercedes extended their lead to more than 100 points over Ferrari, who are probably now more worried about Red Bull catching them from behind. The most significant change in the constructors' championship, though, is Manor passing Sauber for 10th place with their point from Austria, which will be worth several million dollars to the team, if they can hold onto it.
Here is the table for the constructors' championship:
| Position | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Mercedes | 295 |
| 2. | Ferrari | 192 |
| 3. | Red Bull | 168 |
| 4. | Williams | 92 |
| 5. | Force India | 59 |
| 6. | Toro Rosso | 36 |
| 7. | McLaren | 32 |
| 8. | Haas | 28 |
| 9. | Renault | 6 |
| 10. | Manor | 1 |
| 11. | Sauber | 0 |
Silverstone Circuit
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The 5.891-kilometre Silverstone Circuit is built on a former Second World War airfield, although it has been significantly modified from the original layout.
Like Monaco, most of the corners at Silverstone have names, which are referenced below, along with the corner numbers.
Check out the official F1 circuit guide video to see a lap from the drivers' perspectives.
Abbey and Farm (Turns 1 and 2)
In 2011, the old start/finish line was moved from between Woodcote and Copse corners to the straight between Club and Abbey.
Under the revised layout, after a relatively short run to the first corner, the sweeping Abbey and Farm are taken at nearly 300 km/h.
Speaking about the circuit in general, Fernando Alonso said, "It’s one of the few places where the drivers feel like they’ve been let off the leash because you can really feel the aerodynamic grip at Silverstone, which makes it very pleasurable to drive," per McLaren's race preview.
Turns 3, 4 and 5
The drivers brake hard for Turn 3, going from 300 km/h down to 120 km/h for the tight right-hander. Turn 4 follows almost immediately. It is nearly a hairpin left-hander, taken in second gear at just 90 km/h.
From there, the cars accelerate through Turn 5, a quick left-hander, and out onto the Wellington straight.
Turn 3 is, "a high-braking corner, pretty slow, but then goes into another hairpin—a very slow-speed corner," according to Esteban Gutierrez in the Haas race preview. "After exiting Turn 4, you have Turn 5, which is also flat out, and it’s important to have a good balance and good traction."
Brooklands, Luffield, Woodcote and Copse (Turns 6, 7, 8 and 9)
After the long Wellington straight, where cars will reach more than 330 km/h, there is another hard-braking zone, for the 180-km/h left-hander, Brooklands. The track then curls back the other direction for the long, slow Luffield, taken at approximately 120 km/h.
After Luffield, the drivers hammer their accelerators, flying through the flat-out Woodcote at approximately 280 km/h and onto the old start/finish straight before braking to about 265 km/h for another quick right-hander, Copse.
Maggots, Becketts and Chapel (Turns 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14)
The most famous and exciting section of Silverstone, this series of left-right-left-right-left sweeping turns begins at more than 300 km/h, but the drivers will scrub their speeds down to less than 200 km/h by the exit onto the Hangar straight.
"The high-speed corners are great fun, and, whatever your car's level of competitiveness, you can't help but smile as you drive through Copse, Maggotts and Becketts because it's so fast through there," Jenson Button said, per McLaren's race preview.
Stowe, Vale and Club (Turns 15, 16, 17 and 18)
Following the Hangar straight, where the cars reach speeds of more than 330 km/h, they brake to approximately 210 km/h for Stowe, a fifth-gear right-hander.
Then there is a short blast to the final section of the lap: a tight, 110-km/h left-hander, Vale, followed by two right-handers onto the start/finish straight. The first is another slow corner, taken at about 115 km/h, followed by the quicker Club, taken in fifth gear at approximately 220 km/h.
The pit entrance is on the right, between Turns 15 and 16, with the exit flowing into Turn 2.
"Silverstone is one of the best tracks of the year," Sergio Perez said, per Force India's race preview. "I think all the drivers say it's one of their favourites. There is so much history and all the great drivers have raced and won there. For me it's very important that we keep going back to these historic circuits because they helped make Formula One what it is today."
All circuit data is from the FIA website. Circuit map is from Wikimedia Commons.
British Grand Prix Tyres and DRS Zones
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Pirelli is bringing soft, medium and hard tyres to Silverstone—a combination seen just once so far this season, in Spain.
Pirelli selected the hardest compounds in its range, "due to the high-energy, high-speed demands of the British circuit," according to the Italian company's race preview.
Pirelli expects at least two pit stops for each driver during the race, with most teams leaning heavily toward the softer compounds in their tyre selections. Sauber are the most extreme, requesting nine sets of soft tyres and just one set of hards for each of their drivers. Force India have the most hard-compound sets, with three for each of their drivers.
Mercedes have opted for one set of hard tyres, five sets of medium and seven sets of soft for both Rosberg and Hamilton.
DRS Zones
There are two DRS zones and two detection points at Silverstone.
The first detection point is just before Turn 3. The activation point comes after Turn 5 as the cars accelerate onto the Wellington straight.
The second detection point comes after the left-hand kink at Maggots (Turn 10), with activation after the exit of Chapel (Turn 14) on the Hangar straight.
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British Grand Prix Weather
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The forecast for the British Grand Prix looks cloudy but relatively rain-free, according to the BBC at the time of publication.
The high temperatures for Friday and Sunday are just 19 degrees Celsius. Saturday should be slightly warmer, with a predicted high of 21 degrees Celsius.
Rain is forecast for Friday morning and early afternoon. With clouds hovering all three days, though, more precipitation could come on the weekend.
British Grand Prix Odds
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Hamilton is almost an even-money favourite to take his fourth British Grand Prix win. If you think the Merc drivers might take each other out again, though, both Red Bull drivers have attractive odds.
The best odds available for the top-10 favourites at Silverstone are:
| Driver | Odds |
|---|---|
| Lewis Hamilton | 24-23 |
| Nico Rosberg | 9-4 |
| Sebastian Vettel | 8-1 |
| Daniel Ricciardo | 16-1 |
| Max Verstappen | 20-1 |
| Kimi Raikkonen | 28-1 |
| Sergio Perez | 80-1 |
| Valtteri Bottas | 80-1 |
| Nico Hulkenberg | 80-1 |
| Felipe Massa | 110-1 |
Selected Others
Here's an unexpected statistic: Rosberg has just one podium finish in the last five races. He is 2-1 to miss the top three again this weekend.
Williams struggled in Azerbaijan and Austria, but they have performed well at Silverstone the last two years. You can get 6-1 odds for Felipe Massa and/or Valtteri Bottas to finish on the podium.
Even if you think one of the Silver Arrows will win in the end, you could bank on another poor start for Hamilton and Rosberg and get 5-1 odds for Sebastian Vettel to be leading after the first lap—or 16-1 for Daniel Ricciardo.
All odds are taken from Oddschecker and correct at the time of publication.
British Grand Prix Session Times and TV Times
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Here are the times for the three free practice sessions, qualifying and the race:
| Session | Day | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Practice 1 | Friday | 10 a.m. |
| Practice 2 | Friday | 2 p.m. |
| Practice 3 | Saturday | 10 a.m. |
| Qualifying | Saturday | 1 p.m. |
| Race | Sunday | 1 p.m. |
The above times are in local Silverstone time (BST, UTC+1). You can convert the times to your local time zone using the helpful tool on the official F1 website.
TV Times
In the United Kingdom, Sky Sports F1 and Channel 4 will have live coverage of all the sessions. The programming start times are as follows (all times BST):
| Session | Day | Time (Sky Sports) | Time (Channel 4) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Practice 1 | Friday | 9:45 a.m. | 9:55 a.m. |
| Practice 2 | Friday | 1:45 p.m. | 1:55 p.m. |
| Practice 3 | Saturday | 9:45 a.m. | 9:55 a.m. |
| Qualifying | Saturday | 12 p.m. | 12 p.m. |
| Race | Sunday | 11:30 a.m. | 12 p.m. |
In the United States, NBC has live coverage of all the sessions on CNBC, NBCSN and the NBC Sports app, with programming start times as follows (all times EDT):
| Session | Day | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Practice 1 | Friday | 5 a.m. (NBC Sports app) |
| Practice 2 | Friday | 9 a.m. (CNBC) |
| Practice 3 | Saturday | 5 a.m. (NBC Sports app) |
| Qualifying | Saturday | 8 a.m. (NBCSN) |
| Race | Sunday | 7:30 a.m. (CNBC) |
Enjoy the race and the rest of the weekend!
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